After a month of mass produced African lagers, we finally had a chance to visit a local craft brewery. Crafty Dee’s, here in Dar es Salaam, is Tanzania’s first craft brewery, and one of Africa’s most awarded too. The beer was a welcomed improvement, and the food was delicious. 🍻 -S🇹🇿
Short stops to break up the long days on the road
To break up the long days on the road, we had several short stops for tours: a rubber farm in Malawi; a coffee plantation in Tanzania; and in Zanzibar, a tour of Stone Town (the capital) and a spice farm. -J 🇲🇼🇹🇿
The Malawi rubber farm
The Tanzania coffee plantation
Tour of Stone Town, Zanzibar, and its markets
Zanzibar spice farm
More photos can be found at: www.icloud.com/sharedalb…
Roadkill fines in Mikumi National Park—listed in USD, not local currency. -S 🇹🇿
🎥 Recapping our 24-day overlanding safari of Africa
Here’s a video recap of what we thought about our 24-day overlanding safari tour of Africa. What did we like? Dislike? Would we do it again? Find out below.
And here’s a short montage video someone on our tour made for his students—focusing on the first few days of the East Africa portion of our tour—using a 360 camera.
And if you missed it, here’s more on the overlanding truck we used:
https://adventuresaroundthe.world/2025/01/07/a-little-bit-about-the.html
-S 🇿🇦🇧🇼🇿🇼🇿🇲🇲🇼🇹🇿
🎥 Recapping our wildlife experiences in Africa
A video discussion of our wildlife experiences in Africa. Did we see everything we wanted to? What were the game drives like? Find out in the video below. -S 🇿🇦🇧🇼🇿🇼🇿🇲🇲🇼🇹🇿
A story in three photos… 😂
-S 🇿🇲
🎶 …Everybody was kung fu fighting… 🎶
Some vervet monkeys playing around our campsite at Lake Malawi on New Years Day. It was fun to watch these two chase and wrestle around; should have stayed longer to get more shots!
The monkeys of Jozani Forest
On our full day in Zanzibar, we visited the Jozani-Chwaka Bay National Park and Biosphere Reserve. The park is famous for its monkeys, specifically the endangered and endemic Zanzibar Red Colombus Monkey, but also the Blue Monkey. It was an up close and intimate encounter…minus all the tourists, of course. -S🇹🇿
You can find other photos here: www.icloud.com/sharedalb…
Elephants peacefully snacking on some grass in Mikumi National Park in Tanzania. -S 🇹🇿
A little bit about the overlanding vehicle we’ve been traveling in the last three weeks through Africa. -S
Next Zoom Call - Sun, Jan 12, 2025
Join us for our next Zoom call! We will have finally finished our 24-day African Tour and we’d love to share our updates and impressions, tell some stories, and see all of you.
Scheduled for 10:00 am Arizona Time (12:00 pm EST) on Sunday January 12, 2025 (it will be 8 pm our time).
Here is the link:
In the meantime, we’ve included some fighting zebras to catch your interest 😁
-J 🇿🇲
It wasn’t on the itinerary per se, but I managed to do both Kilimanjaro and the Serengeti on this trip! 🍻😉 -S 🇹🇿
Uncomfortable in Africa
The primary constant during our time in Africa has been the feeling of being uncomfortable. I’m referring to physical discomfort, not the discomfort that comes from traveling as a privileged person in a land that lacks it (we’ll write about that another time).
Humid beyond belief. Hot, intense sun. Omnipresent insects, especially at night in our tent or room. Bumpy roads. Long drives. Constant sweat. Frequent rain. Fleeting internet access. Sporadic electricity. Unnecessary delays. Cold showers. Warm beer. Unending stickiness. Long lines. Terrible toilets. Ubiquitous mud. Reliable unreliability.
Africa is a challenge because everything is a bit uncomfortable. Everything.
It’s an adventure, not a vacation, and so this was expected. But it also gives us a glimpse into daily life on this continent. We will eventually return to air conditioning, roads that don’t resemble minefields, and bug-free hotel rooms—while the locals continue with life as-is.
-S 🇹🇿🇲🇼🇿🇲
We did a sunset game drive a few days ago, but a rainy night made for a less than stellar experience. But the two highlights were a (rather vicious) zebra fight and elephants playing the mud. The sunset was pretty nice too! -S 🇿🇲
Many of our meals on this African tour are made by our guide/chef from the side of the Nomad truck. We have been pleasantly surprised by how tasty they have been. Last night in Malawi, some locals joined us and cooked us some of their local dishes, which were delightful. -J 🇲🇼
When we renewed our ASU football season tickets in early 2024, it was beyond our wildest dreams that we’d be listening to a radio broadcast of ASU going into a second overtime of a playoff game while we laid in our bed, in the dark, under a mosquito net in Malawi, fighting off swarms of bugs. 🇲🇼
Rainstorms have been a constant thing here in Africa. Here is yet another storm approaching—this one brewing over Lake Malawi earlier this morning. We managed to get the Nomad truck up the hill and out of the campground before it hit. -S 🇲🇼
Happy New Year from Malawi! -J 🇲🇼
We’ve made it to Malawi, which involved a two hour delay at the border crossing. Today is a long transport day—which apparently includes a pretty sketchy road (or off-road route, as we understand it) that we need to complete before dark. With luck, we’ll celebrate New Years near Malawi Lake.